No more dams, float solar panels instead: experts

Two separate reports by the California-based National Heritage Institution (NHI) foundation address the impact of pending dam projects in Laos and Cambodia that severely threaten the vital core of the world’s most productive riverine ecosystem and the Mekong Delta. Both studies were led by Gregory Thomas, an American with extensive experience studying fisheries and sediment issues on tributary river dams in Vietnam and Laos, and more than a dozen international and regional co-authors and contributors. The first report, The NHI’s Sambor Alternatives Assessment, was prepared under a 2014 Memorandum of Understanding with the Cambodia Ministry of Mines and Energy and submitted in December 2017. The Sambor study considered ten alternatives, of which seven were the most thoroughly explored. Ultimately the authors settled on one of several variants of what it called Alternative 7 as the alternative with the highest potential for mitigation. Other alternatives included relocating the dam upstream on a part of the river with several braided channels, some of which could be left open for fish and sediment passage, and only blocking half of the mainstream at the planned site. In the end the report’s authors concluded that not even “Alt 7” would be acceptable in terms of impact on fisheries and sediment flows into the Delta. Among other factors, fish screens that would be necessary to keep the fish away from the turbines would not be financially feasible. Instead, the study recommends not building any version of Sambor at all and instead deploying a floating solar array… [Read full story]